M. LEON BLUM, KEY MAN OF EUROPE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 31, 20 February 1937, Page 17

M. LEON BLUM, KEY MAN OF EUROPE

A Cultivated Idealist V^ho, 111 an Age of Violeiice and Onreason, Repreisehts the Spifit of Schoiarship and Humbniltti in Intemationai Politics.

\ jyj LEO'N BLUM has .beoome a key figure iil. 'the! Woi'ld 'strugjgie between Faseism and Democraey, writes John Gunther ' in the Strand Magazine, London. This eleganf and fastidioUs-man of ldtters surrounded hy beautiflil books a&d d few delicately chosen objets^art, is the maia counterweight in contemporary Europ© to the black shirts, the .xnasa. propaganda, the crushmg tbtalitarianism Of Hitlfer and Mussolini. Against the mailed first is M. Bltim'a Silver poniard o£ Wit and intellect. Against the loud-speaker eohtiing the dictatod. will bf a nation is,the thin but pene- . trating voice of M. Blum, the cultivated htidividualist. Blum, leader of a mass movement, is not a man of the masses. Therein. lie both. weakness and strength. Nor wRs he for many years predominantly a man 6f politics. I know no better way to indicate his relation to the party he leads than to quote this excerpt from a friend's letter froni Paris — a friend wbo attended the meeting whieh celebrated Blum's appointlnCnt as Pl'emier : — "The crowd is enormous insidfe the hall. Alinost everybody is in shirt sleeves. A very rough and ready audience, bui'sting at aiiy mbment ittth the Intefnationale or tho Carmaguole. Suddenly ihe roaringj swells unbelievably. . Suh-outidfed by shouting, shoviiig, stveating path-clearers, a couple appears. A small, neatly-dfessed woman, a tall, slettder, ittipeceably dfessed grey-haired man, both with pinc-nbzj both seeming strangely Out of place ia the roa^iiig medley. They are Blum a-nd Mnie. , Blum — who is always at his side. "Bracke, the agecl yeteran of French sObialism, is on the plafcform. Blum is ia vivid bat qaiet actlvity as Bracke prepai'es to Speak. Greetings to frieads, a ready smile here and there. No indicatibn that he has any thing on his mind. No indication that he is to deliver a big speech on policy on an historic occasion. His manners are not of the stump, but of the drawiug-room. Certaialy a curious leader for the robust, rowdy, hard-bdiled, dyaamic {Front Popujfiirc'' .... H© is the ariStocrat, who by eheer hoUesty of consciencfej ehfcer intellectual iliumination'3 ifi accepted by the crowd ' Ti Bllim is flo demagogiiie. He is ntterly devoid of persoaal ambitiou. He is no oppbrtunist, no advelitUrer-. He is elderly — aimost 65. Yet history has called him to fulfil at least oue function, and poisibly two. ^ He is the first leader of a TJnited Left governatent in an iMportaat bourgeois country since the war. And in an age of violence and unreason, he represents somethingj like a breatli or the past, the spirit Of "scholarship, intellectual detaehttlent, huinanism. Hls maternal grandmother Was a remarkable womau, who, though blind for many years, owned a boOk stofe On the Ile de la 6ite} had profotlnd radical cOnvictions, voiced them on fit occasions, and held political salons twice a week, Young Blum was defoted to her .

Blunl'a hidtlier bmphasiSed th© Jewish family traditiou of uaity, idyalty and affeetion. Th©: father was k merchant j she was au ittteiiectUal. fllUni adotfes hef ihefflory, afld speaks tqiichingly of Kfer. Ho is, hbwever, ext'tferneiy stilbboi'ii aboUt tlie ptiracy of liisi noii-pUblie life. Qiiestioiis abou"*diis lainily of homo life are, With charm, tcbuffbd. From the earliest days Bliim'e charm, gg well aa his iuteiiilencO Riid eftlditibtt, waS ' notfed Widely. He WaS oU§ ofthe most b'ril- • liaat men about towu of his timo, iu a literary sOnsb. in l9§9 he becamo bi'Osident of the p&rliameiitary gtoup of the frrmich Sdcialisf party. Al soeialist ieadet hd steadily and Stltbbornly refllsed pai'ticipatiOli in the tarious radieal cabinets of the titne. He would not acoefit4 power, he said, •without f ofepoiisibiiity 2 he Would fibt aebbpt reepoftsibility wiihbtiu power. Thfeil in May, tho

socialists — for the first time — became the largest single party. Blum was offered the premiership and accepted it. After 17 years of opposition he assumed office — and in about 17 minutes France was wakingj up to something New. Until three yearB ago Leon Blum lived in a modest flat at 126 Boulevard dn Mont- % parnasse. Thench he and Mme. Blum moved to their present home on the Ile St. Louis, facdng the Seine itt the oldest and loveliest part of Paris. The legend that the iflums are very rich is without foundation. Blum was supposed to own a famotls silver collection, aiid Was, in fact, invited to lend some of it to an exhibition ; he could not do so beoause he had only enough kiiives and forks for his own modest table.

Mme. BluittJs his tecond wife, Thi first wlfe, a sister- Of the compoSOr 'Patii DiikaS, dfed soine ./years ago, after Si loiig illness. By her he had' oue aous now enlployed ia:the-Hispan'o-Suiza motor factory. Th^ sscona maii'iage was childiess. Mme: Blum Was a - Mlle. Therese Peneira, att iittpoiftant member . ef ihe ebcialist party. The marriaae has . been extrem&ly happy, attd Mme. Blum accompaniei hei1 htisbattd every wherei At ^ eVefy politifekl meeting, she ii with hiitti ia. ■ the days immediateiy preceding his preMti*i- v. - ship she Was practically hia tehef dtt cabinet. Blum's day is Jairiy .bti§y, but he keeps his evettibgs jb» hiinsfeif, cie'ar' Of official business, sd that he may read and Study. - Ha gets up at eight, re&ds the newspapers himself, receiye'fl his eiosest assdci&tbS' after breakfast atid ttrrives at hii office, doii his • job, and fiilisheS the day at ahbttt 8.9B p.m. He never dMeS Ouife , Ha is skty-fiye, not iii really robust health, and he h'as tb be spaHngi of his energy: very oceasionaily he f goes to the theatr'e. . His method bf work is § combination of " * ^ apparent slipshodnesa and actual pretision. He is an invet&rate note-taker. He writes everythiag down, not eniy ideas 4s they come to him, but fiotet of other peoplWs convcrsatien. Afi idea may arriye in a taxi. at a meal, during p debate, in an aeroplane, during a eonference. Out of ihe pocket comes a notebook. the pencil cabalistically flies. If the notebook is not available, Blum uses any odd bit of paper that may be handy, even 4 newspaper. But everything must go down — in Writing — and at once. Tbese notes, are carefully checked, fiied, ahd prOserved. Out bf them feome his speecnes, essays, arguments. , His speeches, extraoi'dinarily liicid, and in a French of grave purity, give an i-a-pression of casualness, of extemporaneity. But behind them is much,careful preparation — aild the notes, Although he represents an agriculture! And malxily Wiiie-growiugcOnscitlieiiCJ, Bliim is almobt— not quite — a teetotaler. He plays gjbOd bridgc, but plays it Seldbffl. He wearfi . a, big black Latin Quarter hat. He loyea convers&tibn. He cannot speik Hnglish or German easily. His friends are legiott; He tvas tbe only eocialist whom Poinc&re ever liked or admired. He hateS no oue. The Story is, however, that he does not get along with one important person— his YicePremier, the ambitious Daladier. Blum's intellectual honesty is completbi Nor has there been any breath or hitit of ' acandal in his publio .life; he is bne of 'the cohiparatively few French. politicians Who have never befen mentioned in any "affaire." At a time when most democratic politicians were objects of derisive laUghter, whbn ttie general public in France was sick to ' death 9 of tha venality, the inefficiency, the Oppor- . tunism, the vulgar heroics of most of the Paris politicians, he emerged with one suprcme quality, namely that he commanded respect. » i. ... -.1 .